Today, Change.org founder Ben Rattray and his team delivered the signatures collected through his platform to the Apple Store in San Francisco.

All 250,000 signatures were delivered to other locations including New York City, Washington DC, London, Sydney, and Bangalore.

Rattray said, "we are most excited by the capacity of an individual. This is Mark Shields, who is an Apple lover. Immediately in response to an article by The New York Times, Shields rapidly organized a quarter of a million people around the world and organized a distributed protest around the world. It's a remarkable demonstration of the capacity of individuals to advance real change."

The next stop is to escalate talks with Apple and allow consumers to directly negotiate with Apple, Rattray said. Many of the concerned consumers hope that the iPhone 5 will be the first ethical iPhone, Rattray added.

Here was the scene in downtown San Francisco as some folks delivered the petitions to the Apple Store.

Boonsri Dickinson, Business Insider

After a short hello, Rattray and several members from his Change.org team handed over the petitions to Apple employee Larry Verter.

Verter kindly accepted the petitions.

Boonsri Dickinson, Business Insider

One of the Change.org team members expressed his feelings non-verbally, by dressing up as an iPhone.

Boonsri Dickinson, Business Insider

Dennis Ring, an Apple customer, stopped by the protest and told us, "I'm here as a consumer to see that the petitions get delivered. To let Tim Cook know they have to change their ways and set the standard for the rest of the industry."